HackathonGuidelines (PDF)

Hackathon Guidelines
Date: 10/10/2015

Schedule
9:00am - 10:00am -

Team Building and Strategy

10:00am - 9:30pm -

Hacking.

9:30pm - 10:00pm -

Hack Demo and Judging

10:00pm - 10:30pm -

Winners announced and prizes (See prizes below)

Venue:

Olin Engineering Auditorium

(Tons of refreshment available during event)

Team Building
This stage of the hackathon is self-explanatory, but tricky to execute. A perfect team
would generally consist
● The person with the idea
● The programmer or hardware person
● The designer
A team is limited to a ​
maximum of 4 people​
and a ​
minimum of 1​
. It is beneficial to form
a team of more than one person, because if one decides to go for a break, the other can
keep working.

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Strategy
You will probably need to go over what kind of app or hardware you want to build, and
analyzing it before starting development.

Hacking
This is the development process, the moment you put your brain juice to work. We got
energy drink to help with this process. You are required to create an app or hardware
within the time frame

Demo
Each team will have the chance to give a demo to the judges individually, as well as a
5-minute powerpoint presentation at the end of the judging.

Judging Criteria (Ordered based on priority)
1. How close to a ‘product’ the hack is
2. Originality
3. Projected impact on the world
4. Intuitiveness / Ease of use
5. Eye candy
6. Demo / Powerpoint presentation

Prizes
1st Place:

A RC Quadcopter Drone with HD Camera

2nd Place:

An Android/iOS compatible smartwatch

3rd Place:

A Wireless Bluetooth Headset

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Swag / Giveaways
● 10 Selfie Sticks (Available on a first-come first-serve basis)
● Lots of swag from Google

FAQ
Q:

Are we going to be breaking into a computer?

A:

Unfortunately not. A hackathon (at least in the traditional sense) doesn’t

deal with that kind of hacking. ‘Hacking’, used in this sense, means creating something
cool that works, or kinda works or looks like it works. So an app or a flashy hardware
creation/modification can pass as a hack in this case.
Q:

Do I have to be a super-good programmer to compete?

A:

The strongest point of a hackathon is bringing out the best in you. Even if

you think you aren’t good enough, join a team and try to contribute to the team’s
success in any way you can. Usually, people come out of a hackathon with 2 times the
experience they had going into it. So you never know, you might even end up winning.
It’s worth a shot at least.
Q:

Do I have to be a CS student to compete?

A:

No. The products made in this hackathon can be hardware or software.

The rules are just that simple: make something cool
Q:

Can I use an already made project?

A:

The goal of the hackathon is to create something new. You may not

present a project made before the competition. However, you may use pre-built themes
and wireframes to speed up your design
Q:

Do I have to be in the venue all the time?

A:

Not necessarily. You only have to be available at check-in and at least the

final 2 hours of the competition. Hacking can be done from anywhere.